Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Dear Mr. Friedman, There Are Worse Things Than Dirty Air

I'm not in the mood to suffer fools today so when I came across Thomas Friedman's Our One Party Democracy my immediate reaction was a F-bomb laden diatribe that left one poor co-worker quite pale. Of course, my f-bombs consist of the word "flippin'" instead of the more common word, but when I finally slowed down enough that my co-worker was able to break in the best he managed was, "wow."

Friedman is not a stupid, or at least uneducated, person. He must know that he is advocating dictatorship. And not any run of the mill dictatorship, flippin' China. That is nothing short of evil.

One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks. But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages. That one party can just impose the politically difficult but critically important policies needed to move a society forward in the 21st century. It is not an accident that China is committed to overtaking us in electric cars, solar power, energy efficiency, batteries, nuclear power and wind power. China’s leaders understand that in a world of exploding populations and rising emerging-market middle classes, demand for clean power and energy efficiency is going to soar. Beijing wants to make sure that it owns that industry and is ordering the policies to do that, including boosting gasoline prices, from the top down.

That one party can just impose the politically difficult but critically important policies needed to move a society forward in the 21st century.

Surely Friedman knows the means the Chinese employ to "impose the politically difficult but critically important policies...". And he is okay with that? Encourages that? Is this the level of depravity that liberal critical thinking has sunk to in the freest country in the world.

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About Me

Woke up one day and decided I'd better start paying attention. Found out that there is a direct correlation between paying attention and ulcers.
The ulcers don't bother me. Fortunately, my parents credo was "Don't let the bastards get you down!" I never have.